Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has ordered workers not to travel to Nigeria following the kidnapping of six Filipinos there at the weekend.
“The president has ordered a temporary halt to deployments to Nigeria until the security of our nationals is guaranteed,” presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a statement.
“The president is monitoring the situation and the Department of Foreign Affairs is coordinating with the Nigerian authorities to ensure the safety and secure the release of the kidnapped victims,” the statement said.
Unknown assailants took six Filipino oil workers and one local staffer hostage on a cargo ship on Saturday in the Niger Delta, the latest in a string of kidnappings in the epicentre of Nigeria’s multi-billion-dollar oil industry.
“The vessel is still being held with six Filipinos in it. We understand they are OK. (State) Governor James Ibori is already intervening on the matter,” a spokesman for Delta State government, Ozoene Sheddy, said at the weekend.
“There were 14 crew members on board but only six were taken,” Sheddy said, adding that the cargo ship was heading for the port of Warri, Delta State’s capital.
No group has so far directly claimed responsibility for the latest attack, but a prominent separatist group in the region said Sunday that members of a local community had seized the Filipinos.
“They were taken by a community in that vicinity. The community plans to explain their reason for their abduction today,” a spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) told AFP in an e-mail message.
The latest kidnapping brings to nine the total number of foreigners currently being held hostage in the volatile region.
Philippine foreign ministry spokesman Ed Malaya said some 3,900 Filipinos were employed in Nigeria at the end of 2006.
“It is one of the biggest employers of Filipino workers in Africa,” he told AFP.
He said the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) would stop issuing authorisation for companies to hire Filipino workers to work in Nigeria until further notice.
“Our embassy in Nigeria is working closely with the state and federal authorities to resolve the situation and to seek the safe return of our people,” he said.
As of early Monday, the POEA had not yet issued any advisories or warnings on its website about the possible dangers of working in Nigeria.
It listed hundreds of jobs available in the country, ranging from accountants to engineers. Most of the positions were in the oil industry.
According to Malaya, MEND is believed to have been behind the kidnapping.
There has been a sharp rise in the number of kidnappings and attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta since the beginning of 2006.
Last year alone, more than 60 foreigners, mostly oil workers, were kidnapped, and dozens of Nigerians were killed by militants and bandits.